2025 Grammy for Immersive Audio Album - Who should win?

[soundboy]

And the official nominees (announced Friday, November 8th) are:

Best Immersive Audio Album

• “Genius Loves Company,” Michael Romanowski, Eric Schilling and Herbert Waltl, immersive mix engineers; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; John Burk, immersive producer (Ray Charles with Various Artists)

I assume this is a new immersive mix and not the 2005 version. Wikipedia makes no mention of any new immersive mix...

 

[sjcorne]

Yes, it’s a completely new mix:



https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/now...Nqqw0iDXG0a4qLq-M4HJwkgmBXXWRAmCJUtt3QhMj0ZlK

 

[jane23]

And the official nominees (announced Friday, November 8th) are:

Best Immersive Audio Album

• “Avalon,” Bob Clearmountain, immersive mix engineer; Rhett Davies and Bryan Ferry, immersive producers (Roxy Music)
• “Genius Loves Company,” Michael Romanowski, Eric Schilling and Herbert Waltl, immersive mix engineers; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; John Burk, immersive producer (Ray Charles with Various Artists)
• “Henning Sommerro: Borders,” Morten Lindberg, immersive mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive producer (Trondheim Symphony Orchestra)
• “I/O (In-Side Mix),” Hans-Martin Buff, immersive mix engineer; Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell, immersive producers (Peter Gabriel)
• “Pax,” Morten Lindberg, immersive mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive producer (Ensemble 96 and Current Saxophone Quartet)

Some reminders, before we start recycling the Same Old Complaints (see also my post #11, above):

• To be nominated, you've gotta enter or be entered. And not all artists, agents, or labels bother (or manage) to enter their eligible titles by the submission deadline. (Here's the process. And here.)
• Unlike the "big" categories, the nominees (and the eventual winner) for Best Immersive are selected by members of the "Craft" committee--in principle, qualified fellow immersive engineers.

Is Martin Linberg on the Craft committee, did he vote for himself twice to get nominated? Were his immersive mixes that much better than other entries to the extent that that he would get two nominations? The other odd aspect of the nomination process is that the NARAS has not publicized nor otherwise revealed any of the Immersive Audio submissions except for the nominees.

 

[humprof]

Is Martin Linberg on the Craft committee, did he vote for himself twice to get nominated? Were his immersive mixes that much better than other entries to the extent that that he would get two nominations? The other odd aspect of the nomination process is that the NARAS has not publicized nor otherwise revealed any of the Immersive Audio submissions except for the nominees.

Hi, jane23, and welcome to QQ.

The Academy isn't 100% transparent about the current membership on this Craft committee or any other Craft committee. For that matter, they're not totally transparent about every last aspect of the nominating or adjudication process, either. (For instance: does the Craft committee really sort through all the submissions to arrive at the final list of nominees, or do they get an assist from flunkies who winnow things down according to some unpublished criteria?) But they're still pretty good, I think.

That said: sure, in theory there are opportunities for favoritism and self-dealing in this process. But even if the community of immersive mixing engineers is mainly a good-old-boys club, I can't imagine why they wouldn't try to be objective in their peer evaluations, or what possible incentive any of them would have to conspire for or against one another. (I haven't heard about any catfights within this community, and I've never heard any engineer dish on any other engineer, either; quite the contrary.) Anyway: it's not like a win in this category is going to translate into big money for anyone concerned.

Here's what we know about Craft committees. From the Academy's "Voting Process" FAQ:

Special Nominating Committees​

In Craft categories, final nominations are determined by committees comprised of voting members from all of The Academy's Chapter cities who are actively working the craft they are judging.

From a 2023 article in Billboard:

According to the Academy, all members of craft committees must be voting members of the Academy in the membership class which corresponds to the craft they are being submitted to judge. All must have filled out a documentation form listing six tracks or albums for which they have a credit corresponding to the craft they are being submitted to judge. The credits must be for recordings released in the previous five years.

Committee members may serve a maximum of eight consecutive years. At least 25% of each committee must turn over from the previous year’s committee.

Committees Choose the Final Nominees Entirely on Their Own in These 6 Categories:​

[...]
Category 83: Best Immersive Audio Album

Notes: According to the Academy, the committee for best immersive audio album has 20-25 members....

From the current Rules and Guidelines (p. 18):

CRAFT NOMINATING COMMITTEE GUIDELINES
Craft Categories recognize excellence in highly specialized crafts. Craft Committee members must be Voting Members of the Academy in the membership class which corresponds to the Craft they are being submitted to judge. Each must fill out a Documentation Form listing six tracks or albums for which they have the nomination-eligible credit corresponding to the Craft they are beingsubmitted to judge. The credits must be for recordings released in the previous five years. The form remains on file at the National Office of the Recording Academy and is valid for five years.

Populating the Craft Committees. Each Chapter’s Executive Director works in concert with the Chapter Nominating or Executive Committee and Chapter President to develop a slate of recommendations. These recommendations can be supplemented, if necessary, by the CEO and National Chair in consultation with the head of Awards and the Craft Committee Chair(s) for DEI and balance considerations. The final slate is submitted to the National Board of Trustees for ratification. Furthermore, Craft Committee members are solicited for their recommendations of appropriate committee members, and no person would serve for more than five consecutive years without a break. If deemed necessary to the process, a committee member selected to chair may serve up to an additional three consecutive years.

​

1. Committee members may serve a maximum of eight consecutive years, if they served on the committee first and were then elected to be chair. Two years off would still apply in these cases.​

2. At least 25% of each committee must turn over from the previous year’s committee. Nominations in Craft Categories are determined by National, Regional or Chapter Craft Committees as described below.​

As for who the current 20-25 members are: I haven't been able to find that info anywhere. We do know that a couple of years ago, Michael Romanowski and George Massenburg were co-chairing a subcommittee of the Producers & Engineers Wing tasked with "developing a [new] set of technical guidelines for immersive audio." (The old set, written in 2004, is still online here.) If that work is ever completed, perhaps it will be used as a point of reference in the judging process. At any rate: here's the current Leadership of the P&E Wing, which has 6000-some members worldwide. Lots of familiar names on the current Steering Committee and Advisory Council; I would guess there's significant overlap between those two groups and the Immersive Craft committee.

And as for submissions: I don't think the Academy publishes a list of all submissions for any category, so I don't see us ever getting a peek behind the curtain there.

 

[jane23]

I am actually a voting member of the the Grammy's since 2014 and I have no way to access who the academy members of the Craft categories are, (I would assume for Immersive Audio that they are members of the Producers and Engineers Wing). It would be in the Academy's own self interest to acknowledge who else submitted in the immersive audio category aside from the 5 nominees who were announced in order to promote the Surround Sound aspect of recorded arts and sciences.

 

[jane23]

You are correct in that the Academy does not publish a list of all of the submissions to the public but as an Academy member, I am able to see all of the submissions in every category with the exception of the Immersive category and a couple of minor categories. I have no idea why this information is being hidden from other voting members

 

[humprof]

You are correct in that the Academy does not publish a list of all of the submissions to the public but as an Academy member, I am able to see all of the submissions in every category with the exception of the Immersive category and a couple of minor categories. I have no idea why this information is being hidden from other voting members

Interesting. Are those other "minor categories" also Craft categories? (Anybody know someone who knows someone who could shed some light on this?)

 

[jane23]

If I remember correctly, the other categories which are voted on by committee are: Best Recording Package and Best Album Notes. There might a couple more but I forget.

 

[himey]

is Martin Linberg on the Craft committee, did he vote for himself twice to get nominated? Were his immersive mixes that much better than other entries to the extent that that he would get two nominations?

I am listening to BOARDERS now and the mix is excellent. PAX is on deck...

 

[mkt]

Re Morten Lindberg, "As a producer and engineer, he held the record for most Grammy nominations without a win, with twenty-eight through 2019, until 2020 when he won his first Grammy." Currently 31-1.

 

[humprof]

If I remember correctly, the other categories which are voted on by committee are: Best Recording Package and Best Album Notes. There might a couple more but I forget.

The other "Craft" categories (or semi-Craft, anyway; see the Rulebook pp. 19-20) are:

• Best Historical Album
• Best Instrumental Composition
• Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella
• Best Arrangement, Instruments And Vocals
• Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical
• Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• Producer of the Year, Classical
• Best Engineered Album, Classical
• Best Contemporary Classical Composition
• Best Recording Package and Best Boxed/Special/Limited-Edition Package
• Best Album Notes
• Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical
• Best Music Video and Best Music Film

But to clarify: when I was asking about "someone who knows someone," I was wondering if there might be anyone else reading this thread who could explain why Academy members aren't able to see the submissions in the Immersive category and a few others.